Data collected by Zan Times show that the Taliban have arrested at least 64 women in Herat during the past 15 months, according to its own announcements.
The data, which was taken from press releases and statements issued by the Taliban, shows that the Taliban has arrested 64 women in Herat province from August 20, 2021, until November 20, 2022. One lawyer says the actual number of arrests is likely significantly higher while a recent documentary aired video of dozens of women being held without charges in a Herat prison.
The 64 arrests include 24 women charged with theft, 21 charged with extramarital sexual relationships, eight charged with murder, eight charged with escaping from their homes, and another three women are charged with selling drugs.
One of those women is Shamila*, a young woman who was arrested in August 2022 based on a verbal complaint from a neighbour.
Since her detention, her brother has struggled to prove the innocence of his 23-year-old sister. “My sister has been in prison for four months,” Mahmoud* tells Zan Times. “The Taliban arrested her just after our neighbour’s verbal claim that his house had been robbed.”
Mahmoud says that Shamila’s trial was held in September without her being allowed to have an attorney. “My sister was sentenced to one year of imprisonment without any evidence or proof,” adds Mahmoud.
Farid Ahmad*, an attorney who practises law in Herat’s court, says that the real number of women arrested by the Taliban is significantly higher than 64. He’s concerned about the conditions faced by women in detention. He says that most arrests of women aren’t reported by the media and, in many cases such as those of the detention of women protesters, aren’t recorded in the Taliban’s own judicial system.
A recent documentary by Ramita Navai, a British-Iranian producer, showed secretly filmed video from inside a women’s prison in Herat where at least 90 women were imprisoned under Taliban rule, which suggests that the actual number of women incarcerated by the Taliban could be much higher than the 64 reported by the media. Some women featured in the documentary say the Taliban pressured them to marry their members in exchange for freedom.
In a report published in October, Human Rights Watch reveals that the Taliban is torturing women prisoners, who sometimes have their children living with them in prison. “In March 2022, the Taliban kept 21 women and 7 children in a small suffocating room without access to water, food, and toilet for five days,” states the report.
As well, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan urged the de facto authorities of the country to release five women activists who were arrested in Kabul a month ago. UNAMA stated in a tweet that the families of these women have not been able to meet them while it is not clear under what charge they have been arrested.
*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees.
